Resistance And Freedom In Cory Doctorow's Little Brother

It is an age old question, contradicting between the belief of resistance and freedom. In Little Brother, Cory Doctorow emphasizes the use of security as a way to demonstrate the power of the government. The book starts off by Marcus skipping school with Darryl, Vanessa (Van), and Joul. They are playing an alternative reality game (ARG) called Harajuku Fun Madness. Essentially the game, decodes messages from players to track down clues that can lead you to more coded messages and clues. While playing this game, The San Francisco Bridge suddenly explodes and dozens of crowds are running. Marcus’s friend Darryl is stabbed and the group is immediately taken by the Department of Homeland Security. The DHS takes them to an undisclosed prison and
is held captive. In the meantime, they are all interrogated by an unknown woman who works for the DHS, which they call the “Severe Haircut Lady”. She each puts them in restricted areas where they cannot see each other. Van, Joule, and Marcus are released except for Darryl. They all return back to the Bay Area and have no new information about Daryl if he is alive. Prior to the time they left, extensive amount of security and military is enforced including restrictions. He goes against the DHS “restricted internet policy” by creating a private internet network called Xnet. Marcus is persistent in finding Darryl. People are losing their minds over the high tech security that is watching their every move. Cory Doctorow further explores the contradiction between resistance to high tech security and the ability to pursue freedom from confinement. After being detained by the DHS, Marcus goes back to home to find out that the DHS has installed high tech security measures.
For example, when Marcus comes back home after he is held captive he notices that : “Maybe his room was wiretapped... there was a camera spying on him now. He felt paranoid when he got home” (Doctorow 32). Everything felt different once he got back. It wasn’t the same calm Bay Area has grown to know. Because, they found him near the worst terrorist attack the country has ever seen. They think he is part of Al-Qaeda since they adore recruiting impressionable idealistic kids. So, Marcus creates “ a fake email address through the Pirate Party, a swedish political party that hates internet surveillance” (Doctorow 36). He is not surveillanced while using proxys. After a while, he goes to school to find out that he is being watched by the DHS. Before, the security he was able to speak against the DHS but now security is inforced which coud lead him into deep trouble. “The cameras used to set off an alert every time someone they didn’t recognize stepped onto campus..the system kind of fuzzes out your profile, looking for people who walk like you” (Doctorw 9). In the beginning of the book, the school set up gait recognition camera to determine if your walk was similar to others. This gives you the sense of the school having power over the students. It allows them to take away their freedom if they leave the school. Furthermore, these examples establishes
the existing fact the the government is detoriating the lack of individuality amongst the students.